


Double Down

by clotpolesonly



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Derek Hale & Laura Hale Are Twins, F/F, Full Shift Werewolves, Mistaken Identity, Twin Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-04 00:01:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12157491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clotpolesonly/pseuds/clotpolesonly
Summary: The Hale twins don't look much alike as humans, but their full shift wolf forms are as identical as their human forms are not! Normally Laura loves this, but not at times like this.In which Derek begs Laura to hang out with Stiles pretending to be him. It would be a lot easier to play along with Stiles if his new friend Allison wasn't so damn pretty.





	Double Down

**Author's Note:**

> I had so much fun with this!! I've never written Hale twins before, but love the idea of it and I can never get enough of sibling bickering XD
> 
> Written for day 3 of Laura Hale Appreciation Week!!!

Laura and Derek were not identical twins by any stretch of the imagination. Technically, obviously, there was the whole separate eggs thing, but also just the fact that Laura was four inches shorter despite her sixteen extra minutes of life and had long hair and boobs and such. She and Derek were the kind of twins that never had to worry about getting mixed up.

But that only applied to their human forms. The full shift, that amazing feat of biological mysticism that ran almost exclusively in their family line, was another matter entirely. Once the fur was on, Laura and Derek became nearly indistinguishable wolves, the same height and bulk, the same grey fur so dark it was almost black, even the same patch of white above their left eye. The two of them had gotten up to plenty of mischief as cubs, determined to take full advantage of their twinness for once; they’d nearly driven the rest of the family to distraction with all their ridiculous hijinks!

Yes, Laura loved that she and her brother could switch places so convincingly. Until such times as this.

“You want me to _what?_ ”

“Just go hang out with Stiles in my place for a little while,” Derek repeated. He was leaning against Laura’s bedpost, interrupting her study time, and his face was very close to pleading. “It’s not like it’s that much of a hardship, is it? You like Stiles!”

“Pretty sure you’re the one who likes Stiles,” Laura reminded him, giving him a flat look over the top of the open textbook in her hands. She expected her brother to roll his eyes, throw his hands up, argue or even deny it like he had done so many times in the past. This time though he just let himself tip over until he fell flat across her bed—and her notebook, and her legs—and let out a groan.

“I do,” he said miserably. “I really, really do. Which is why you have to do this for me.”

“I am missing a step in your thought process,” Laura said, seriously considering dropping the textbook on Derek’s face. It would probably break his nose, but that would heal in a few minutes so it might be worth the blood stains on her bedspread.

Derek groaned again. “I’m supposed to hang out with Stiles and his friends at the park today,” he told her. “But mom says I have to clean out the garage instead. She used her alpha eyes and everything! I can’t go, so you have to go for me.”

“Why don’t you just tell Stiles why you can’t make it, you dingbat?” Laura asked, dropping the book on Derek’s stomach instead. He _oophed_ and flicked her the bird.

“It’s such a fake excuse!” he said.

“It’s not fake if it’s true!”

“But it _sounds_ like it’s fake,” Derek argued. He rolled onto his side to face her, once again disrupting her study materials. “Laura, I really like Stiles. Like, _really._ I don’t want him thinking that I’m blowing him off or flaking out on him.”

Damn it, he had the sad eyes going on, and they didn’t even look like the fake ones they both pulled out when they needed a favor. These were real sad eyes. Probably because Derek was still a little tender from the messy breakup with Paige that had broken his heart so thoroughly. It had been well over a year since then and people still gossipped about it in the halls at school like total dicks. They were half the reason Derek had been so reluctant to start dating again, but then came Stiles and suddenly Derek was laughing and smiling at his text messages and being a total heart-eyes goober.

“What would I even do?” Laura asked, resigning herself to the absolute fact that her brother was going to get what he wanted. “I mean, were you planning on hanging out with him in full shift all day? Is he not gonna be suspicious that you never shift back?”

Derek sat up, sad eyes magically transformed into hopeful eyes as soon as he heard her resolve cracking.

“Stiles loves my full shift!” he said earnestly. “It’s not like he needs another person to carry on a conversation anyway. He’s more than capable of talking for hours on his own. That’s part of what makes us so perfect for each other. And besides—”

He broke off, biting his lip and shrugging in a way that was probably supposed to be innocent but actually set off every alarm bell in Laura’s mind.

“What?” she asked, wary.

“Well, Stiles has been trying to convince me to...play catch with him?” Derek said slowly, like that might make it better.

“Derek!” Laura cried, yanking a pillow out from behind her so she could hit him with it. “You want me to play _fetch_ with your boyfriend?”

Derek didn’t even bother dodging the pillow attack, just shielding his head and weathering the onslaught because he knew he deserved it.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” he said. “At least not yet, and not ever if he convinces himself I don’t like him because I keep finding excuses not to hang out with him. And it won’t be fetch, okay? Probably frisbee! You like playing frisbee!”

“Ooh, you are going to owe me so much for this, baby brother,” Laura growled. “ _So much._ ”

 

 

* * *

 

 

Normally, the full shift was a source of total joy for Laura, a way to slough off all the worries and stress of human life in favor of something so much simpler. It was freedom, it was power, it was unity with nature, it was the opportunity to exist outside of expectations. In short, she absolutely _loved_ being a wolf.

Not today though. Today she was feeling distinctly petulant as she shucked off her clothes in the backseat of the Camaro she shared with her stupid brother and let her body rearrange itself. Once she had all four furry legs in place, she clambered over into the front seat again, pawed at the mechanism until the door opened, and jumped out to let the door shut behind her again. With one final full-body shake, she set off toward the middle of the park at a half-hearted trot.

According to Derek, he was supposed to meet Stiles and a few of his friends under the big tree where the good benches were at two o’clock. It was currently quarter past, but considering she was doing him a hell of a favor here and doing so under protest, Laura couldn’t be bothered to move any faster. If she was late then she was late and Stiles could read into it whatever motives he saw fit.

He didn’t seem worried though. When Stiles caught sight of Laura’s approaching form, he stood up from where he’d been lying flat on his back on one of those benches and started waving enthusiastically.

“Derek!” he called. “Hey, big guy! You’re looking especially furry today. Did you do something with your hair?”

Laura huffed and rolled her eyes but padded in his direction anyway. She let Stiles run a hand over her head because that’s what Derek would do, and apparently Stiles knew about that spot she and Derek both had right behind their ear that always felt embarrassingly good to have scratched, so that was a thing. Stiles was beaming down at her with that bright grin of his, looking absurdly pleased at his own petting skills. If Laura were in a less grouchy mood, she might think it was cute.

“The others are gonna be here in a few,” Stiles said, plopping back down on the bench and digging through the backpack leaned up against the side. “Then we’re all gonna play frisbee together! You gonna stay in your fur? Finally show me what you got?”

Laura made a noncommittal noise and laid down in the grass instead. There were people all around, a couple of kids on a playdate and another group of teenagers doing homework in the sun, and no matter what she had promised Derek, Laura was really not up for being a spectacle. Werewolves in general may have been par for the course around Beacon Hills, but the full shift was so rare that it always drew attention. A wolf playing frisbee? She’d draw a crowd for sure. Derek may have been willing to suffer through the ordeal to impress Stiles, but Laura wasn’t half that smitten with him.

“Aw, c’mon,” Stiles said, sliding down to sit cross-legged in front of her and reaching for the ear spot again. “Not up for it? I guess we could lounge around in the shade instead, that works too. I’m a little tired anyway. I actually made it onto the field at practice today! Got creamed by Jackson, big surprise there, but I still got to play for real and that’s always a good day in my book.”

Derek was right: Stiles did not need anyone else to participate in order to hold a conversation. Really, Laura didn’t mind. She just closed her eyes and let Stiles’ voice fade into background noise. It occurred to her that, if she was a really good sister, she could be paying at least _some_ attention to what Stiles was saying in the interest of relaying it back to Derek so that when he talked to Stiles later, it looked like he listened when Stiles talked. But that was a whole lot of effort to go to when it was mostly lacrosse babble anyway.

The sun was warm where it made its way through the canopy of leaves, the grass was cool and soft beneath her, and Laura could admit that there were worse ways to spend her afternoon. Even if she was pretending to be her stupid brother and letting _his_ crush idly pet her while he rambled about his day. Laura was well on her way to falling asleep by the time she heard footsteps and caught a very familiar scent on the breeze. Her eyes snapped open in alarm.

“We’ve arrived,” said Lydia, taking a seat on the bench that Stiles had vacated and letting her book-filled purse clunk down on the ground.

“Allison’s right behind us,” said Cora.

Cora who was Lydia’s girlfriend. Cora who was also Laura’s little sister. Cora who was one of the few people in the world who could reliably tell Laura and Derek apart even in wolf form. Cora who was sitting at Lydia’s side and glancing down at Laura and frowning and opening her mouth like she was going to question what the hell she was doing here—

“Hey, guys! Sorry I’m late!”

A girl came jogging up to them, long dark curls swinging out behind her and bringing with her a wave of some sort of light, floral, utterly delicious scent. She was smiling, showing off white teeth and dimples like Laura had never seen and was it really fair for someone to have dimples like that _and_ smell so good at the same time?

“Hey, Ally,” Stiles said with a grin and a wave. “Glad you could make it. Der, this is Allison. She’s new in town, gonna be at school with us starting next week. And Allison, this big furball here is Derek, Cora’s big brother.” He gave Laura’s head another scratch.

On the one hand, the new girl was fucking _beautiful_ and smiling down at her with the kind of wonder and curiosity that everyone displayed upon meeting a rare full shift werewolf for the first time. On the other hand, Cora was squinting back and forth between Laura and Stiles, clearly wondering what the fuck and why and if she should call bullshit. When Allison knelt down in the grass to be on Laura’s level, all sunshiny smiles and flowers, Laura threw in the metaphorical towel and shot Cora a pleading look to keep her mouth shut.

“Hi, Derek,” Allison said. “It’s nice to meet you.” She bit her lip, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ve, uh...never met someone who could shift like this,” she admitted. “Is it...I don’t know, _rude_ to ask if I can pet you? You just look really soft, but I don’t want to offend you or anything.”

 _You can pet me all day long,_ Laura thought.

Cora snorted almost like she had heard that thought loud and clear. Of course she did, the little traitor; she knew damn well what Laura’s type was and that Allison checked every box on the list. “Yeah, Derek,” she said, heavy emphasis on the wrong name. “How do you feel about that?”

A hand ruffled Laura’s fur, but it wasn’t Allison’s.

“Derek may have big teeth,” Stiles said on a laugh, “but he’s a giant softie once you get to know him. He’s much less likely to take your hand off at the wrist than he looks, in both wolf _and_ human forms.”

Allison still waited until Laura gave her a nod before she reached out. Her fingers were long and slender, and they felt fantastic running through the thick fur around Laura’s neck. If she’d been a cat, Laura would’ve purred. Instead she just pushed into the motion, damn near nuzzling against her hand and preening at the quiet awestruck noise Allison made.

“Are we playing frisbee or what?” Lydia asked, either entirely unaware of the weird tensions playing out before her or deliberately ignoring them. Both options were equally likely with her. “It’s that or calculus homework.”

Stiles leapt to his feet, frisbee already in hand. “Fuck calculus!” he said. “You gonna join us, Ally?”

“Oh, I didn’t dress for sports,” Allison said, gesturing to her short skirt and bare legs. “I think I’ll just watch.”

“Suit yourself,” Stiles said with a shrug. “Derek, how about it? Two on two, you and me against Lydia and Cora?”

It was practically a couples’ match, and Derek would no doubt be thrilled with the implication if he were here. He would kill Laura if she didn’t do this for him, if she turned Stiles down and sat out like she’d been intending to.

Laura found herself looking back at Allison, who was clearly preparing to cheerlead with the best of them. Suddenly a little showing off didn’t seem like such a bad idea anymore. Laura got to her feet, stretched out and gave herself a shake, then yipped. Stiles whooped and punched the air, leading the charge onto the open grass.

The game was actually pretty fun, even with the _oohs_ and _ahs_ of all the random people who gathered to watch. Laura got to run and leap and flip and play in a way she rarely had the opportunity to do nowadays. Stiles was a pretty decent partner too. He might not have the best balance in the world, but he had damn good aim and was totally willing to peg Cora in the face without remorse.

Cora, for her part, didn’t go to full shift but still employed every bit of werewolf strength and agility she possessed to match Laura move for move where the acrobatics were concerned. And Lydia, the undisputed queen of geometry and physics, somehow managed to bean both her opponents with one throw by letting the frisbee ricochet off of Stiles’ shoulder right into Laura’s stomach. Twice.

All the while, Allison cheered. She ripped a piece of paper out of one of Lydia’s notebooks and made it into a scoreboard, keeping a running tally of the number of missed catches, interceptions, and direct torso hits. She held it up over her head and played at being the referee. She even gave Stiles a penalty for the face shot, which he moaned and groaned about before finally conceding to.

But most gratifying of all were the gasps and squeaks she made whenever Laura did something really impressive. Those made it really hard to remember that she was supposed to be here flirting with Stiles for her brother’s sake. Right now, Allison thought she was Derek. Hell, _Stiles_ thought she was Derek, so clearly Laura could not go around flirting with his friend and making him think that Derek was more interested in her than in him.

Allison was so fucking cute though.

This was not fair and Derek owed her _so goddamn much._

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Stiles was trying to rally them all for a tie breaker match—they were stuck at twelve wins each, but apparently twenty-fifth time was the charm—when Laura heard a whistle. It was distant enough that the humans didn’t notice it, but it was loud and clear in Laura’s ears and distinctive enough that she turned toward it automatically. She and Derek had been using that particular whistle since they were little kids, usually as a way of kickstarting pranks or of alerting each other when an adult was coming and they should hide what they were doing and look innocent ASAP.

Now Laura turned away from where Stiles and Lydia were bickering and loped off toward the stand of trees on the far side of the grass, on the opposite side from parking lot where most people never bothered to go. Sure enough, Derek was there, far enough from the treeline that the others couldn’t see him. He had a bundle of clothes under his arm.

“How’s it going so far?” he asked as soon as she was within hearing range. “Did you get made?”

Laura shifted back to human form. She didn’t reach for the clothes he’d brought her though, not yet. Unconcerned by her nakedness when she could hear anyone approaching long before they could see it, she just crossed her arms over her chest, her long-forgotten annoyance with the whole situation flaring up again.

“Not by Stiles,” she said. “But Cora certainly figured it out pretty fast. You didn’t tell me Cora was gonna be here, dummy!”

“Cora?” Derek repeated, far more horrified by his little sister’s attendance at the day’s events than by his twin’s nudity; it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen it a million and a half times before. “I didn’t know she was coming! Stiles just said some friends, not which ones! Who else is it?”

“Lydia and Allison.”

“Who’s Allison?” Derek asked, frowning.

“Just some new girl in town.” Laura tried to be nonchalant about it, but there was no hiding the way her heartbeat picked up and no doubt in her mind that her chemosignals were giving her away one way or another too. “We’ve been playing frisbee. You’re welcome, by the way. You and Stiles against Lydia and Cora, and you’re tied.”

Just as she’d predicted, Derek’s face lit up at those pairings. “Really? You’re the best, Laur!” He held out the clothes to her with one hand, already shrugging out of his jacket with the other, and said, “Quick, let’s do the switch before we’re gone too long and Stiles comes looking.”

Laura hesitated, glancing back over her shoulder toward where she could just barely see the others through the trees. Allison looked to be playing mediator to some argument between the self-appointed team captains, but she was laughing so it wasn’t anything serious. Laura strained her ears to hear that laugh and it was every bit as musical as she would have predicted.

“Laura?” Derek asked impatiently. “What’re you doing? C’mon!”

“I don’t want to switch back.”

The words came out of her mouth before she’d thought them through, before she’d even realized them herself. Derek stared at her.

“What?” he demanded. “What do you mean, you don’t want to—”

His eyes narrowed, scrutinizing her in that scarily acute way he got once in a blue moon when he decided he suddenly wanted to be observant. Laura couldn’t help the way she flushed, and she cursed herself for being so transparent.

“You’re crushing on that Allison girl,” he said, practically an accusation. “I can’t believe you! I ask you for one favor, _one favor:_ to help me win over Stiles. And you turn around and fawn all over some random girl instead! You’ve probably ruined any chance I had with him!”

“I did not!” Laura hissed at him. “I have made nice with Stiles all afternoon, thank you very much. But excuse me for having romantic interests too.”

“You can pursue your romantic interests later,” Derek said stubbornly. “We had a deal.”

“No, I was doing you a favor,” Laura countered. “Which means that I set the terms, and I say that—”

A loud groan cut her off and Laura almost gave herself whiplash trying to cover up before she realized it was just Cora, leaning up against a nearby tree and rolling her eyes hard enough that it probably hurt.

“Why can’t you two losers date your own friends instead of perving on mine?” Cora asked waspishly.

“It’s not our fault all your friends are cooler than you are,” Laura said. “If you don’t want us dating them, then stop having such datable friends.”

“You guys are idiots.” With one last rueful shake of her head, Cora headed back the way she’d come. “They do know you’re twins, you know,” she called back. “You could both just come out.”

Laura finally snatched the clothes out of Derek’s hand with a huff of aggravation, only to scowl at them as soon as she’d shaken them out.

“I can’t go back out there in these!” she cried, eyeing the jeans and blouse with distaste. “Why couldn’t you bring me something cute? Or at least worth being seen in?”

Derek snorted, tugging his jacket back on. “Well, I wasn’t aware you were going to be out to impress anyone.”

Before Laura could retort, Cora was shouting at them:

“Would you two just come out already? I already told them everything because you were taking too damn long!”

Laura cursed up a storm, already thinking up the most creatively heinous ways she could get back at Cora while simultaneously considering making a break for the car. Instead she pulled on the frumpy mom jeans and not-exactly-clean, from-the-bottom-of-her-closet blouse and trying fruitlessly to make sure her hair was something other than a bird’s nest. Derek hadn’t brought her any shoes, the asshole.

Everyone looked a little awkward when she and Derek made it back to the bench under the big tree where they were all seated, except for Cora who looked like she was enjoying this immensely. Laura shoved her hands in her pockets and fought the urge to snarl at her.

“Okay, so I’m confused,” Stiles admitted, looking back and forth between the twins and Cora. “Laura, I’d say it’s nice to see you but apparently I’ve _been_ seeing you. All day. You and _not_ Derek, whom I thought you were, and whom you let me think you were. Why exactly?”

“Because Derek’s crushing on you hardcore, and he didn’t want you thinking he was turning you down just because mom made him clean out the garage,” Laura said promptly. Derek punched her hard in the shoulder, but the blush on his cheeks was practically luminescent so there was no point in denying it.

Stiles blushed too, staring at Derek with wide eyes. He cleared his throat. “That’s an interesting way of going about things,” he said slowly.

“Yeah, well, Laura was the one who was going to keep pretending with it just so she could keep making goo goo eyes at Allison,” Derek said because apparently, if he was going to suffer, then she was going to suffer too. She punched him back twice as hard, hard enough to earn an actual _ow._

“And to think,” Lydia said dryly, “I almost didn’t come out today because I thought it was going to be boring. Silly me.”

Most of Laura sort of wanted to burrow underground and disappear forever, but the little part of her that was more curious than cowardly and humiliated insisted she look up. Allison’s cheeks were stained a pretty pink, one glossy lip caught in her teeth. She was looking at Laura, but she ducked her head as soon as she caught Laura looking back.

“So you two look the same as wolves?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s, uh...it’s a thing,” Laura said lamely. “Always been a thing. Twin thing, I guess.” So lame, wow. She blamed the mom jeans. No one could be suave and charismatic while wearing mom jeans.

Allison smiled though. “You look so different like this, though,” she said. “And yet your wolves are identical? How does that work?”

“How does any of it work, really?” Laura responded with a shrug and a raised eyebrow.

Allison laughed and it was every bit as wonderful as the last time. “Touché!”

“I guess we can all brainstorm our theories on the matter over dinner,” Stiles said, gesturing expansively.

“Dinner?” Derek asked.

“Yeah,” Stiles said easily. “Or bowling maybe. Bowling seems like a good double date activity. Triple date, even!”

“Oh no, leave us out of it,” Lydia said immediately.

“Yeah, I don't wanna be seen in public with these two morons,” Cora agreed.

“Wait, did you say date?” Derek cut in, his grouchy defensiveness already falling away to show the hope underneath it. “Like, real date?”

“Thought that might be more fun for us than the fake kind,” Stiles said, a bright grin already overtaking his face despite his attempts at being casual about it. He leaned over to nudge Allison and said, “How about you, Ally? You up for a date with the lovely lady?”

Laura’s heart did a backflip off her ribs, followed promptly by a swan dive into her stomach that would make olympic judge proud. She swallowed hard and tried to keep her claws from popping out of sheer nerves as she waited for Allison to say something.

There was a moment where Allison’s mouth opened and closed a few times, too caught off guard to form words. And then she was smiling, that bright smile with the white teeth and the dimples, and she said, “I could be up for that. But only if bowling’s still on the table as an activity.”

Laura beamed back at her. “Bowling’s good,” she said. “I love bowling.”

“You haven’t been bowling since we were nine,” Derek reminded her. She stepped on his foot.

“Shut up,” she said, still grinning determinedly. “I love bowling.”

Allison laughed again, harder this time than before. Her nose crinkled up when she laughed like that. It was fucking adorable. For all that the whole day had been strange and awkward and embarrassing, it was worth it just for that. Maybe Laura was the one who owed Derek. Just a little bit.


End file.
